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PATCH(1) General Commands Manual PATCH(1)
patch - apply a diff file to an original
patch [options] [originalfile [patchfile]]
but usually just
patch -pnum <patchfile
patch takes a patch file patchfile containing a difference listing
produced by the diff program and applies those differences to one
or more original files, producing patched versions. Normally the
patched versions are put in place of the originals. Backups can
be made; see the -b or --backup option. The names of the files to
be patched are usually taken from the patch file, but if there's
just one file to be patched it can be specified on the command
line as originalfile.
Upon startup, patch attempts to determine the type of the diff
listing, unless overruled by a -c (--context), -e (--ed), -n
(--normal), or -u (--unified) option. Context diffs (old-style,
new-style, and unified) and normal diffs are applied by the patch
program itself, while ed diffs are simply fed to the ed(1) editor
via a pipe.
patch tries to skip any leading garbage, apply the diff, and then
skip any trailing garbage. Thus you could feed an email message
containing a diff listing to patch, and it should work. If the
entire diff is indented by a consistent amount, if lines end in
CRLF, or if a diff is encapsulated one or more times by prepending
"- " to lines starting with "-" as specified by Internet RFC 934,
this is taken into account. After removing indenting or
encapsulation, lines beginning with # are ignored, as they are
considered to be comments.
With context diffs, and to a lesser extent with normal diffs,
patch can detect when the line numbers mentioned in the patch are
incorrect, and attempts to find the correct place to apply each
hunk of the patch. As a first guess, it takes the line number
mentioned for the hunk, plus or minus any offset used in applying
the previous hunk. If that is not the correct place, patch scans
both forwards and backwards for a set of lines matching the
context given in the hunk. First patch looks for a place where
all lines of the context match. If no such place is found, and
it's a context diff, and the maximum fuzz factor is set to 1 or
more, then another scan takes place ignoring the first and last
line of context. If that fails, and the maximum fuzz factor is
set to 2 or more, the first two and last two lines of context are
ignored, and another scan is made. (The default maximum fuzz
factor is 2.)
Hunks with less prefix context than suffix context (after applying
fuzz) must apply at the start of the file if their first line
number is 1. Hunks with more prefix context than suffix context
(after applying fuzz) must apply at the end of the file.
If patch cannot find a place to install that hunk of the patch, it
puts the hunk out to a reject file, which normally is the name of
the output file plus a .rej suffix, or # if .rej would generate a
file name that is too long (if even appending the single character
# makes the file name too long, then # replaces the file name's
last character).
The rejected hunk comes out in unified or context diff format. If
the input was a normal diff, many of the contexts are simply null.
The line numbers on the hunks in the reject file may be different
than in the patch file: they reflect the approximate location
patch thinks the failed hunks belong in the new file rather than
the old one.
As each hunk is completed, you are told if the hunk failed, and if
so which line (in the new file) patch thought the hunk should go
on. If the hunk is installed at a different line from the line
number specified in the diff, you are told the offset. A single
large offset may indicate that a hunk was installed in the wrong
place. You are also told if a fuzz factor was used to make the
match, in which case you should also be slightly suspicious. If
the --verbose option is given, you are also told about hunks that
match exactly.
If no original file origfile is specified on the command line,
patch tries to figure out from the leading garbage what the name
of the file to edit is, using the following rules.
First, patch takes an ordered list of candidate file names as
follows:
• If the header is that of a context diff, patch takes the old
and new file names in the header. A name is ignored if it
does not have enough slashes to satisfy the -pnum or
--strip=num option. The name /dev/null is also ignored.
• If there is an Index: line in the leading garbage and if
either the old and new names are both absent or if patch is
conforming to POSIX, patch takes the name in the Index: line.
• For the purpose of the following rules, the candidate file
names are considered to be in the order (old, new, index),
regardless of the order that they appear in the header.
Then patch selects a file name from the candidate list as follows:
• If some of the named files exist, patch selects the first
name if conforming to POSIX, and the best name otherwise.
• If patch is not ignoring RCS, ClearCase, Perforce, and SCCS
(see the -g num or --get=num option), and no named files
exist but an RCS, ClearCase, Perforce, or SCCS master is
found, patch selects the first named file with an RCS,
ClearCase, Perforce, or SCCS master.
• If no named files exist, no RCS, ClearCase, Perforce, or SCCS
master was found, some names are given, patch is not
conforming to POSIX, and the patch appears to create a file,
patch selects the best name requiring the creation of the
fewest directories.
• If no file name results from the above heuristics, you are
asked for the name of the file to patch, and patch selects
that name.
To determine the best of a nonempty list of file names, patch
first takes all the names with the fewest path name components; of
those, it then takes all the names with the shortest basename; of
those, it then takes all the shortest names; finally, it takes the
first remaining name.
Additionally, if the leading garbage contains a Prereq: line,
patch takes the first word from the prerequisites line (normally a
version number) and checks the original file to see if that word
can be found. If not, patch asks for confirmation before
proceeding.
The upshot of all this is that you should be able to run something
like the following shell command:
patch -d /usr/src/local/blurfl
and patch a file in the blurfl directory directly from a patch
that is read from standard input.
If the patch file contains more than one patch, patch tries to
apply each of them as if they came from separate patch files.
This means, among other things, that it is assumed that the name
of the file to patch must be determined for each diff listing, and
that the garbage before each diff listing contains interesting
things such as file names and revision level, as mentioned
previously.
-b or --backup
Make backup files. That is, when patching a file, rename or
copy the original instead of removing it. See the -V or
--version-control option for details about how backup file
names are determined.
--backup-if-mismatch
Back up a file if the patch does not match the file exactly and
if backups are not otherwise requested. This is the default
unless patch is conforming to POSIX.
--no-backup-if-mismatch
Do not back up a file if the patch does not match the file
exactly and if backups are not otherwise requested. This is
the default if patch is conforming to POSIX.
-B pref or --prefix=pref
Use the simple method to determine backup file names (see the
-V method or --version-control method option), and append pref
to a file name when generating its backup file name. For
example, with -B /junk/ the simple backup file name for
src/patch/util.c is /junk/src/patch/util.c.
--binary
Write all files in binary mode, except for standard output and
/dev/tty. When reading, disable the heuristic for transforming
CRLF line endings into LF line endings. This option is needed
on POSIX systems when applying patches generated on non-POSIX
systems to non-POSIX files. (On POSIX systems, file reads and
writes never transform line endings. On Windows, reads and
writes do transform line endings by default, and patches should
be generated by diff --binary when line endings are
significant.)
-c or --context
Interpret the patch file as a ordinary context diff.
-d dir or --directory=dir
Change to the directory dir immediately, before doing anything
else.
-D define or --ifdef=define
Use the #ifdef ... #endif construct to mark changes, with
define as the differentiating symbol.
--dry-run
Print the results of applying the patches without actually
changing any files.
-e or --ed
Interpret the patch file as an ed script.
-E or --remove-empty-files
Remove output files that are empty after the patches have been
applied. Normally this option is unnecessary, since patch can
examine the timestamps on the header to determine whether a
file should exist after patching. However, if the input is not
a context diff or if patch is conforming to POSIX, patch does
not remove empty patched files unless this option is given.
When patch removes a file, it also attempts to remove any empty
ancestor directories.
-f or --force
Assume that the user knows exactly what he or she is doing, and
do not ask any questions. Skip patches whose headers do not
say which file is to be patched; patch files even though they
have the wrong version for the Prereq: line in the patch; and
assume that patches are not reversed even if they look like
they are. This option does not suppress commentary; use -s for
that.
-F num or --fuzz=num
Set the maximum fuzz factor. This option only applies to diffs
that have context, and causes patch to ignore up to that many
lines of context in looking for places to install a hunk. Note
that a larger fuzz factor increases the odds of a faulty patch.
The default fuzz factor is 2. A fuzz factor greater than or
equal to the number of lines of context in the context diff,
ordinarily 3, ignores all context.
-g num or --get=num
This option controls patch's actions when a file is under RCS
or SCCS control, and does not exist or is read-only and matches
the default version, or when a file is under ClearCase or
Perforce control and does not exist. If num is positive, patch
gets (or checks out) the file from the revision control system;
if zero, patch ignores RCS, ClearCase, Perforce, and SCCS and
does not get the file; and if negative, patch asks the user
whether to get the file. The default value of this option is
given by the value of the PATCH_GET environment variable if it
is set; if not, the default value is zero.
--help
Print a summary of options and exit.
-i patchfile or --input=patchfile
Read the patch from patchfile. If patchfile is -, read from
standard input, the default.
-l or --ignore-whitespace
Match patterns loosely, in case tabs or spaces have been munged
in your files. Any sequence of one or more blanks in the patch
file matches any sequence in the original file, and sequences
of blanks at the ends of lines are ignored. Normal characters
must still match exactly. Each line of the context must still
match a line in the original file.
--merge or --merge=merge or --merge=diff3
Merge a patch file into the original files similar to diff3(1)
or merge(1). If a conflict is found, patch outputs a warning
and brackets the conflict with <<<<<<< and >>>>>>> lines. A
typical conflict will look like this:
<<<<<<<
lines from the original file
|||||||
original lines from the patch
=======
new lines from the patch
>>>>>>>
The optional argument of --merge determines the output format
for conflicts: the diff3 format shows the ||||||| section with
the original lines from the patch; in the merge format, this
section is missing. The merge format is the default.
This option implies --forward and does not take the --fuzz=num
option into account.
-n or --normal
Interpret the patch file as a normal diff.
-N or --forward
When a patch does not apply, patch usually checks if the patch
looks like it has been applied already by trying to reverse-
apply the first hunk. The --forward option prevents that. See
also -R.
-o outfile or --output=outfile
Send output to outfile instead of patching files in place. Do
not use this option if outfile is one of the files to be
patched. When outfile is -, send output to standard output,
and send any messages that would usually go to standard output
to standard error.
-pnum or --strip=num
Strip the smallest prefix containing num leading slashes from
each file name found in the patch file. A sequence of one or
more adjacent slashes is counted as a single slash. This
controls how file names found in the patch file are treated, in
case you keep your files in a different directory than the
person who sent out the patch. For example, supposing the file
name in the patch file was
/u/howard/src/blurfl/blurfl.c
setting -p0 gives the entire file name unmodified, -p1 gives
u/howard/src/blurfl/blurfl.c
without the leading slash, -p4 gives
blurfl/blurfl.c
and not specifying -p at all just gives you blurfl.c. Whatever
you end up with is looked for either in the current directory, or
the directory specified by the -d option.
--posix
Conform more strictly to the POSIX standard, as follows.
• Take the first existing file from the list (old, new, index)
when intuiting file names from diff headers.
• Do not remove files that are empty after patching.
• Do not ask whether to get files from RCS, ClearCase,
Perforce, or SCCS.
• Require that all options precede the files in the command
line.
• Do not backup files when there is a mismatch.
--quoting-style=word
Use style word to quote output names. The word should be one
of the following:
literal
Output names as-is.
shell Quote names for the shell if they contain shell
metacharacters or would cause ambiguous output.
shell-always
Quote names for the shell, even if they would normally
not require quoting.
c Quote names as for a C language string.
escape Quote as with c except omit the surrounding double-quote
characters.
You can specify the default value of the --quoting-style option
with the environment variable QUOTING_STYLE. If that
environment variable is not set, the default value is shell.
-r rejectfile or --reject-file=rejectfile
Put rejects into rejectfile instead of the default .rej file.
When rejectfile is -, discard rejects.
-R or --reverse
Assume that this patch was created with the old and new files
swapped. (Yes, I'm afraid that does happen occasionally, human
nature being what it is.) patch attempts to swap each hunk
around before applying it. Rejects come out in the swapped
format. The -R option does not work with ed diff scripts
because there is too little information to reconstruct the
reverse operation.
If the first hunk of a patch fails, patch reverses the hunk to
see if it can be applied that way. If it can, you are asked if
you want to have the -R option set. If it can't, the patch
continues to be applied normally. (Note: this method cannot
detect a reversed patch if it is a normal diff and if the first
command is an append (i.e. it should have been a delete) since
appends always succeed, due to the fact that a null context
matches anywhere. Luckily, most patches add or change lines
rather than delete them, so most reversed normal diffs begin
with a delete, which fails, triggering the heuristic.)
--read-only=behavior
Behave as requested when trying to modify a read-only file:
ignore the potential problem, warn about it (the default), or
fail.
--reject-format=format
Produce reject files in the specified format (either context or
unified). Without this option, rejected hunks come out in
unified diff format if the input patch was of that format,
otherwise in ordinary context diff form.
-s or --silent or --quiet
Work silently, unless an error occurs.
--follow-symlinks
When looking for input files, follow symbolic links. Replaces
the symbolic links, instead of modifying the files the symbolic
links point to. Git-style patches to symbolic links will no
longer apply. This option exists for backwards compatibility
with previous versions of patch; its use is discouraged.
-t or --batch
Suppress questions like -f, but make some different
assumptions: skip patches whose headers do not contain file
names (the same as -f); skip patches for which the file has the
wrong version for the Prereq: line in the patch; and assume
that patches are reversed if they look like they are.
-T or --set-time
Set the modification and access times of patched files from
timestamps given in context diff headers. Unless specified in
the timestamps, assume that the context diff headers use local
time.
Use of this option with timestamps that do not include time
zones is not recommended, because patches using local time
cannot easily be used by people in other time zones, and
because local timestamps are ambiguous when local clocks move
backwards during daylight-saving time adjustments. Make sure
that timestamps include time zones, or generate patches with
UTC and use the -Z or --set-utc option instead.
-u or --unified
Interpret the patch file as a unified context diff.
-v or --version
Print out patch's revision header and patch level, and exit.
-V method or --version-control=method
Use method to determine backup file names. The method can also
be given by the PATCH_VERSION_CONTROL (or, if that's not set,
the VERSION_CONTROL) environment variable, which is overridden
by this option. The method does not affect whether backup
files are made; it affects only the names of any backup files
that are made.
The value of method is like the GNU Emacs version-control
variable; patch also recognizes synonyms that are more
descriptive. The valid values for method are (unique
abbreviations are accepted):
existing or nil
Make numbered backups of files that already have them,
otherwise simple backups. This is the default.
numbered or t
Make numbered backups. The numbered backup file name for F
is F.~N~ where N is the version number.
simple or never
Make simple backups. The -B or --prefix, -Y or
--basename-prefix, and -z or --suffix options specify the
simple backup file name. If none of these options are
given, then a simple backup suffix is used; it is the value
of the SIMPLE_BACKUP_SUFFIX environment variable if set, and
is .orig otherwise.
With numbered or simple backups, if the backup file name is too
long, the backup suffix ~ is used instead; if even appending ~
would make the name too long, then ~ replaces the last
character of the file name.
--verbose
Output extra information about the work being done.
-x num or --debug=num
Set internal debugging flags of interest only to patch
patchers.
-Y pref or --basename-prefix=pref
Use the simple method to determine backup file names (see the
-V method or --version-control method option), and prefix pref
to the basename of a file name when generating its backup file
name. For example, with -Y .del/ the simple backup file name
for src/patch/util.c is src/patch/.del/util.c.
-z suffix or --suffix=suffix
Use the simple method to determine backup file names (see the
-V method or --version-control method option), and use suffix
as the suffix. For example, with -z - the backup file name for
src/patch/util.c is src/patch/util.c-.
-Z or --set-utc
Set the modification and access times of patched files from
timestamps given in context diff headers. Unless specified in
the timestamps, assume that the context diff headers use
Coordinated Universal Time (UTC, often known as GMT). Also see
the -T or --set-time option.
The -Z or --set-utc and -T or --set-time options normally
refrain from setting a file's time if the file's original time
does not match the time given in the patch header, or if its
contents do not match the patch exactly. However, if the -f or
--force option is given, the file time is set regardless.
Due to the limitations of diff output format, these options
cannot update the times of files whose contents have not
changed. Also, if you use these options, you should remove
(e.g. with make clean) all files that depend on the patched
files, so that later invocations of make do not get confused by
the patched files' times.
PATCH_GET
This specifies whether patch gets missing or read-only files
from RCS, ClearCase, Perforce, or SCCS by default; see the -g
or --get option.
POSIXLY_CORRECT
If set, patch conforms more strictly to the POSIX standard by
default: see the --posix option.
QUOTING_STYLE
Default value of the --quoting-style option.
SIMPLE_BACKUP_SUFFIX
Extension to use for simple backup file names instead of .orig.
TMPDIR, TMP, TEMP
Directory to put temporary files in; patch uses the first
environment variable in this list that is set. If none are
set, the default is system-dependent; it is normally /tmp on
Unix hosts.
VERSION_CONTROL or PATCH_VERSION_CONTROL
Selects version control style; see the -v or --version-control
option.
$TMPDIR/p*
temporary files
/dev/tty
controlling terminal; used to get answers to questions asked of
the user
diff(1), ed(1), merge(1).
Marshall T. Rose and Einar A. Stefferud, Proposed Standard for
Message Encapsulation, Internet RFC 934
<https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc934> (1985-01).
There are several things you should bear in mind if you are going
to be sending out patches.
Create your patch systematically. When using a version control
system this should be easy; for example, with Git you can use git
diff. Otherwise, a good method is the command diff -Naur old new
where old and new identify the old and new directories. The names
old and new should not contain any slashes.
If the patch should communicate file timestamps as well as file
contents, its diff commands' headers should have dates and times
in Universal Time using traditional Unix format, so that patch
recipients can use the -Z or --set-utc option. Here is an example
command to generate such headers, using Bourne shell syntax:
LC_ALL=C TZ=UTC0 diff -Naur myprog-2.7 myprog-2.8
Tell your recipients how to apply the patch by telling them which
directory to cd to, and which patch options to use. The option
string -Np1 is recommended. Test your procedure by pretending to
be a recipient and applying your patch to a copy of the original
files.
You can save people a lot of grief by keeping a patchlevel.h file
which is patched to increment the patch level as the first diff in
the patch file you send out. If you put a Prereq: line in with
the patch, it won't let them apply patches out of order without
some warning.
You can create a file by sending out a diff that compares
/dev/null or an empty file dated the Epoch (1970-01-01 00:00:00
UTC) to the file you want to create. This only works if the file
you want to create doesn't exist already in the target directory.
Conversely, you can remove a file by sending out a context diff
that compares the file to be deleted with an empty file dated the
Epoch. The file will be removed unless patch is conforming to
POSIX and the -E or --remove-empty-files option is not given. An
easy way to generate patches that create and remove files is to
use GNU diff's -N or --new-file option.
If the recipient is supposed to use the -pN option, do not send
output that looks like this:
diff -Naur v2.0.29/prog/README prog/README
--- v2.0.29/prog/README Mon Mar 10 15:13:12 2024
+++ prog/README Mon Mar 17 14:58:22 2024
because the two file names have different numbers of slashes, and
different versions of patch interpret the file names differently.
To avoid confusion, send output that looks like this instead:
diff -Naur v2.0.29/prog/README v2.0.30/prog/README
--- v2.0.29/prog/README Mon Mar 10 15:13:12 2024
+++ v2.0.30/prog/README Mon Mar 17 14:58:22 2024
Avoid sending patches that compare backup file names like
README.orig, since this might confuse patch into patching a backup
file instead of the real file. Instead, send patches that compare
the same base file names in different directories, e.g. old/README
and new/README.
Take care not to send out reversed patches, since it makes people
wonder whether they already applied the patch.
Try not to have your patch modify derived files (e.g. the file
configure where there is a line configure: configure.ac in your
makefile), since the recipient should be able to regenerate the
derived files anyway. If you must send diffs of derived files,
generate the diffs using UTC, have the recipients apply the patch
with the -Z or --set-utc option, and have them remove any
unpatched files that depend on patched files (e.g. with
make clean).
While you may be able to get away with putting 582 diff listings
into one file, it may be wiser to group related patches into
separate files in case something goes haywire.
Diagnostics generally indicate that patch couldn't parse your
patch file.
If the --verbose option is given, the message Hmm... indicates
that there is unprocessed text in the patch file and that patch is
attempting to intuit whether there is a patch in that text and, if
so, what kind of patch it is.
patch's exit status is 0 if all hunks are applied successfully, 1
if some hunks cannot be applied or there were merge conflicts, and
2 if there is more serious trouble. When applying a set of
patches in a loop it behooves you to check this exit status so you
don't apply a later patch to a partially patched file.
Context diffs cannot reliably represent the creation or deletion
of empty files, empty directories, or special files such as
symbolic links. Nor can they represent changes to file metadata
like ownership, permissions, or whether one file is a hard link to
another. If changes like these are also required, separate
instructions (e.g. a shell script) to accomplish them should
accompany the patch.
patch cannot tell if the line numbers are off in an ed script, and
can detect bad line numbers in a normal diff only when it finds a
change or deletion. A context diff using fuzz factor 3 may have
the same problem. You should probably do a context diff in these
cases to see if the changes made sense. Of course, compiling
without errors is a pretty good indication that the patch worked,
but not always.
patch usually produces the correct results, even when it has to do
a lot of guessing. However, the results are guaranteed to be
correct only when the patch is applied to exactly the same version
of the file that the patch was generated from.
The POSIX standard specifies behavior that differs from GNU patch.
• In POSIX patch when -b is not used, backups are not made even
when there is a mismatch. In GNU patch, this behavior is
enabled with the --no-backup-if-mismatch option, or by
conforming to POSIX with the --posix option or by setting the
POSIXLY_CORRECT environment variable.
• When intuiting the name of the file to be patched from the
patch header, patch uses a complicated method that is
optionally POSIX-conforming. The method is equivalent to
POSIX if the file names in the context diff header and the
Index: line are all identical after prefix-stripping. Your
patch is normally compatible if each header's file names all
contain the same number of slashes.
• Limit yourself to the following options when sending
instructions meant to be executed by anyone running GNU patch
or a patch that conforms to POSIX. Spaces are optional in
the following list.
-b
-c
-d dir
-D define
-e
-i patchfile
-l
-n
-N
-o outfile
-p num
-R
-r rejectfile
-u
Please report bugs via email to <[email protected]>.
If code has been duplicated (for instance with #ifdef OLDCODE ...
#else ... #endif), patch is incapable of patching both versions,
and, if it works at all, will likely patch the wrong one, and tell
you that it succeeded to boot.
If you apply a patch you've already applied, patch thinks it is a
reversed patch, and offers to un-apply the patch. This could be
construed as a feature.
Computing how to merge a hunk is significantly harder than using
the standard fuzzy algorithm. Bigger hunks, more context, a
bigger offset from the original location, and a worse match all
slow the algorithm down.
Copyright © 1989–2025 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
Copyright © 1984–1986, 1988 Larry Wall.
Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of
this manual provided the copyright notice and this permission
notice are preserved on all copies.
Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of
this manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided
that the entire resulting derived work is distributed under the
terms of a permission notice identical to this one.
Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this
manual into another language, under the above conditions for
modified versions, except that this permission notice may be
included in translations approved by the copyright holders instead
of in the original English.
Larry Wall wrote the original version of patch. Paul Eggert
removed patch's arbitrary limits; added support for binary files,
setting file times, and deleting files; and made it conform better
to POSIX. Other contributors include Wayne Davison, who added
unidiff support, and David MacKenzie, who added configuration and
backup support. Andreas Gruenbacher added support for merging.
This page is part of the patch (GNU patch) project. Information
about the project can be found at
⟨http://savannah.gnu.org/projects/patch/⟩. If you have a bug
report for this manual page, see
⟨http://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?group=patch⟩. This page was
obtained from the project's upstream Git repository
⟨git://git.savannah.gnu.org/patch.git⟩ on 2025-08-11. (At that
time, the date of the most recent commit that was found in the
repository was 2025-05-01.) If you discover any rendering
problems in this HTML version of the page, or you believe there is
a better or more up-to-date source for the page, or you have
corrections or improvements to the information in this COLOPHON
(which is not part of the original manual page), send a mail to
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